aly
12-02-2001, 10:46 PM
Ok, I came home from work dead tired tonight and crawled into bed 30 minutes ago. Now I'm up after tossing and turning because of a situation I'm in. Let me start at the beginning. I will try to be as brief as possible.
2 months ago, we got this big goofy terrier mix at the shelter. She is an owner surrender (they got rid of her because she constantly dug out of the yard - geez bozo, what do you think a dog is going to do when you neglect it in the yard ALL DAY LONG GRRRRRRR!!). Anyway, she's 6 years old and her name is Lucy. She's very depressed in the kennel, so we'd take her behind the desk a lot. We work from 7am to 9pm most of the time, so that's a LOT of time spent with her. Actually, we'd get her behind the desk at 11 when we open, since before that we are in the back. But this is what began the bond I made with her. It got to the point where I was at with Bailey. If she hears my voice or sees me in the kennel area, she starts barking at me to come get her :(
I slapped myself on the wrist every time I thought about adopting and was able to stop myself. I found her a really sweet family with a dog named Chester that was a huge scruffy terrier mix just like her. He is 13 years old but did really well with her in the dog intro. I counseled them on crate training and told them NOT to leave her unattended in the backyard because of her digging issue. To make a long story short, they didn't block off their doggy door, Lucy got out, and I got the awful phone call at work that she was missing.
They adopted her on a Friday, called me the next morning at work and told me she was gone. I printed out her picture and posted 35 fliers. I also told them everything they needed to do to file a lost animal report at the city shelter. I was a crying mess that whole day and the next. But that Sunday evening they called me at work and said they had found her turned in to the city shelter. They also told me they would be returning her because she stressed their old dog out. Oh, and she was found in the area code of the humane society (my shelter) so we think she was coming back to us :eek:
I was SO HAPPY to see her again. She had sores on her feet from something. And she STUNK from being at the awful icky city shelter. She was sooooo hungry and tired. I sat on the floor and she layed her head in my lap and slept. I've been taking really good care of her and making special trips up to see her on my days off. This is probably a bad idea because now she thinks I'm her mommy. Whenever she sees me if she's out of her kennel, she'll start prancing and bouncing right up to me. Someone was looking at her today in the auditorium. I was in there with them talking to them about her. The whole time they were petting her, she'd stare at me. They were holding her head, so she just moved her eyeballs to the side so she could see me.
Now all this has been breaking my heart and I can't ever get her out of my mind. I really am considering breaking my lease and moving to a house ASAP if I could adopt her. I have no clue how she is with cats, and I have no clue if Lolly would be cool with her. I am taking my pups up tomorrow to meet her (just in case). And I'm going to walk her around the cattery to see her reaction to the cats. I'm not going to put an application on her, but just for the heck of it I want to see how those things work.
I know the sensible thing to do would be wait out my lease and move into a house when I was planning to originally. And wait to get a third dog after that. BUT my heart is screaming at me a whole different plan. Maybe Lolly or Shiloh will decide for me.
Here's the beautiful, sweet girl:
http://wsphotofews.excite.com/001/CL/2T/MF/tf79313.jpg
2 months ago, we got this big goofy terrier mix at the shelter. She is an owner surrender (they got rid of her because she constantly dug out of the yard - geez bozo, what do you think a dog is going to do when you neglect it in the yard ALL DAY LONG GRRRRRRR!!). Anyway, she's 6 years old and her name is Lucy. She's very depressed in the kennel, so we'd take her behind the desk a lot. We work from 7am to 9pm most of the time, so that's a LOT of time spent with her. Actually, we'd get her behind the desk at 11 when we open, since before that we are in the back. But this is what began the bond I made with her. It got to the point where I was at with Bailey. If she hears my voice or sees me in the kennel area, she starts barking at me to come get her :(
I slapped myself on the wrist every time I thought about adopting and was able to stop myself. I found her a really sweet family with a dog named Chester that was a huge scruffy terrier mix just like her. He is 13 years old but did really well with her in the dog intro. I counseled them on crate training and told them NOT to leave her unattended in the backyard because of her digging issue. To make a long story short, they didn't block off their doggy door, Lucy got out, and I got the awful phone call at work that she was missing.
They adopted her on a Friday, called me the next morning at work and told me she was gone. I printed out her picture and posted 35 fliers. I also told them everything they needed to do to file a lost animal report at the city shelter. I was a crying mess that whole day and the next. But that Sunday evening they called me at work and said they had found her turned in to the city shelter. They also told me they would be returning her because she stressed their old dog out. Oh, and she was found in the area code of the humane society (my shelter) so we think she was coming back to us :eek:
I was SO HAPPY to see her again. She had sores on her feet from something. And she STUNK from being at the awful icky city shelter. She was sooooo hungry and tired. I sat on the floor and she layed her head in my lap and slept. I've been taking really good care of her and making special trips up to see her on my days off. This is probably a bad idea because now she thinks I'm her mommy. Whenever she sees me if she's out of her kennel, she'll start prancing and bouncing right up to me. Someone was looking at her today in the auditorium. I was in there with them talking to them about her. The whole time they were petting her, she'd stare at me. They were holding her head, so she just moved her eyeballs to the side so she could see me.
Now all this has been breaking my heart and I can't ever get her out of my mind. I really am considering breaking my lease and moving to a house ASAP if I could adopt her. I have no clue how she is with cats, and I have no clue if Lolly would be cool with her. I am taking my pups up tomorrow to meet her (just in case). And I'm going to walk her around the cattery to see her reaction to the cats. I'm not going to put an application on her, but just for the heck of it I want to see how those things work.
I know the sensible thing to do would be wait out my lease and move into a house when I was planning to originally. And wait to get a third dog after that. BUT my heart is screaming at me a whole different plan. Maybe Lolly or Shiloh will decide for me.
Here's the beautiful, sweet girl:
http://wsphotofews.excite.com/001/CL/2T/MF/tf79313.jpg